Myrtue Medical Center is the First Critical Access Hospital in Iowa to Receive National Recognition for Efforts to Improve Cardiovascular Treatment

The American Heart Association presents Mission: Lifeline Gold Plus Achievement Award for the implementation of quality care for severe heart attack patients.

The American Heart Association (AHA) once again has awarded Myrtue its Quality Achievement Mission: Lifeline STEMI Referring Gold Plus Award. Myrtue has been recognized the last four years, which is a tremendous honor by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.

• 2022 – Gold Plus 2nd year in a row
• 2021 – Gold Plus and first Critical Access Hospital in Iowa to receive
• 2020 – Gold and first Critical Access Hospital in Iowa to receive
• 2019 – Silver

Myrtue was the first critical access hospital in Iowa to receive the Gold Plus award in 2021, and to receive it a second year in a row is a tremendous accomplishment.

This award recognizes hospitals that have met or exceeded recommendations in treating patients with severe heart attacks, called STEMI heart attacks. A STEMI “ST-elevation myocardial infarction” is a serious form of heart attack caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart. Every year, more than 280,000 people experience a STEMI that requires timely treatment. To prevent death, it’s critical to restore blood flow as quickly as possible, either by mechanically opening the blocked vessel or by providing clot-busting medication.

The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program aims to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 9-1-1 call, to EMS transport and continuing through hospital treatment and discharge. The national, community-based initiative aims to improve systems of care by streamlining processes to speed the delivery of proper treatment for time sensitive, neuro-cardiovascular disease states.

Myrtue Medical Center earned the award by meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for promptly diagnosing STEMI patients and transferring them to hospitals that provide emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries when needed.

“Teamwork among providers and staff at Myrtue, Medivac, Shelby County Emergency Responders, and the receiving hospitals is the reason this award is possible. The ability to quickly get a patient to a cath lab is heart muscle saving. This recognition for our level of cardiac care is truly an honor,” said Jenny Lefeber, manager of Myrtue’s Emergency Department.

“Care coordination is particularly important when someone experiences a STEMI heart attack, and American Heart Association guidelines call for specific science-based treatment,” said James G. Jollis, M.D., volunteer chair for the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Coronary Artery Disease Systems of Care Advisory Work Group and professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. “Hospitals like Myrtue Medical Center are recognized for consistently supporting patients to ensure the best opportunity for recovery.”